A Day Carting Hay

 

 

 

Yesterday, I went with Dave out to the Douglas Daly Region

to pick up 3 trailer loads of hay.

 

This is an area about 3 hours north of Katherine.

 

 

Leaving at 6am, we headed out. Arriving at the station,

we headed out into the paddock

to load the hay. Dodging the tractor ploughing, and

trying not to get dry-bogged in the soft dirt.

 

 

Each bale weighs about 650kg!! These are not your average

hay bales. They seem to make them all this big here.

 

 

 

 

 

And fully loaded!

 

 

Looking behind us

 

 

For those interested, here's some stats:

 

3 step deck trailers

 

41 bales fit on each trailer, making a total of 123 bales

 

Each bale weighs approx. 650kg

 

24 straps holding the hay on the trailer

 

Each trailer empty weighs 10 tons

 

Prime mover weighs approx. 9 tons

 

18 gears in the truck

 

62 wheels (forget the 18 wheelers)

 

For the trip from 6am to 6pm, we used 500 Litres of Diesel

 

It's 220km one way

 

Total weight of load is 120 tons including trailer weight

(which made it 10 tons overloaded, oops)

 

Anyway, after getting dry-bogged in the paddock

and getting towed out by the Manitou (forklift),

we set off and arrived back in Katherine at the cattle

yards to be unloaded, we unstrapped the load,

(which meant rolling up all the straps, a time consuming job)

we were unloaded and headed home.

 

Ready to do it all again, but twice, the next day.

 

 

 

Point of interest, they're feeding the cattle 90 bales a day!

 

I have uploaded a short video so you can get a better idea.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed another look into our crazy life!